Previous athletic shoes which have been designed to reduce soft tissue injury have included various configurations of fixed cleats designed to reduce injury. These shoes have not succeeded in preventing injuries. This can be seen because there are still tens of thousands of injuries each year to the knees and ankles of athletes.
Athletic cleated shoes are inherently dangerous because they grip the ground and do not allow the athlete's foot to release and dissipate harmful forces. This failure to release causes torque stresses and lateral strains on the legs of the athlete. These strains often lead to ligament damage requiring surgery and tendon augmentation. With the consequent incidence of pain and incapacity, there are millions of man-days lost at work, as well as millions of dollars spent on repairing these athletic injuries. The annual surgical cost of repairing knees of American high school football players is more than $50,000,000.00. Also, recovering patients undergo several weeks of post-operative immobilization followed by graduated rehabilitation regiments lasting from several weeks to several months. In the event of anterior cruciate ligament injuries, a common knee injury, full recovery is the exception.
Therefore, a stress reduction system is required which will allow the athlete's foot to "give away" under predetermined forces which prevent harm or injury to soft tissues and which does not compound injuries caused by the initial impact.
Athletes today also tape their ankles and tape their shoes to their feet. This is designed to give their ankles maximum support. The taping has sufficiently reduced ankle injuries, however, it has caused the forces which would have been absorbed by the ankle to translate upwardly toward the knee, thereby injuring the soft tissues of the knee including the ligaments.
A review of the literature about prophylactic taping of ankles along with the use of other ankle supports has shown an increase incidence of knee injuries. Because prophylactic ankle taping has limited lateral mobility without interfering with the flexion and extension of the shoes, the athletes have received the ideas of taping rather well. In most cases they are unaware, however, that taping their ankles increases the risk of injury to soft tissues including their knee ligaments.
Laterally placed prophylactic knee bracing has been studied during practice sessions and football games, as well as other sports activities. In several studies, it was found that the incidence rates of knee injuries were actually higher when the knee braces were worn as compared to the same activities without the knee braces. Furthermore, the use of knee braces has been associated with increased episodes of muscle cramping in the triceps surae muscle groups, requiring the constant attention of coaches and trainers to remind the players to wear the braces and to apply them correctly. This constant attention proved to be rather costly, and the use of knee braces has been dropped by many college and professional sports teams.
In addition, ankle injuries in the young athlete clearly illustrate the extreme difference between adult and childhood sport injuries. It has been found that ligaments in the skeletally immature athlete are stronger than the bones, so that ligament and other soft-tissue injuries are rare. With the tremendous increase in childhood and adolescent involvement in organized competitive athletics, the percentage of bone growth plate injuries attributable to sport is on the increase. The competitive athletes include football, basketball, soccer, baseball, lacrosse, tennis, rugby and field hockey. It would be most advantageous to provide shoes and foot supports for all of these athletic activities which would give way under certain forces in order to prevent the growth plate injuries which are currently being experienced.
Several shoes have been made with replaceable soles for various reasons. Examples of these assorted footwear are described in the following patents.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,538,628 issued on Nov. 10, 1970 to Arthur Einstein, Jr., discloses footwear with diverse footwear portions and means for enabling the selective separable securement to define a diverse combination footwear assemblies.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,295 issued on Sep. 19, 1978 to Schaefer discloses a convertible sport shoe designed to simplify the conversion of a convertible sport shoe to many different sports. Disclosed is a description of a fitting inter engagement of the sports device on the convertible sport shoe, thereby producing a so called "uni-sport shoe" which may be used for roller skating, ice skating and stilt walking.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,279,083 issued on Jul. 21, 1981 to Dilg discloses a shoe construction including a shoe body having a separable shoe sole utilizing velcro for enabling attachment and detachment of the replaceable sole. It is disclosed that as one sole wears out, a second sole may be replaced.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,317,294 issued on Mar. 2, 1982 to Goodyear discloses a replaceable shoe sole having a mid-sole and an out-sole which could be easily and selectively removed and replaced by an out-sole having a new or distinctive tread pattern.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,377,042 issued on Mar. 22, 1983 to Bauer discloses an athletic shoe with a removable out-sole. Each shoe has an insole and an out-sole which are attached to one another with a bead-and-recessed mechanically detachable locking member. His invention enables the replacement of soles.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,420,894 issued on Dec. 20, 1983 to Glassman discloses a shoe having an insole with an upper and an out-sole, designed to be able to receive new soles to be placed on the shoe. The embodiments disclosed allow for the complete replacement of a shoe sole.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,439,935 issued on Apr. 3, 1984 to Kelly disclose a convertible high style footwear in which a shoe base is interchangeable connected to a shoe upper which allows the interchange of a new vamp to meet fashion needs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,902 issued on Sep. 1, 1987 to Lewis, Jr. discloses a break away riding boot with lengthwise pleats down the back of the boot secured together by velcro fasteners. In the event a rider falls from a horse and the rider's foot is caught in a stirrup, the velcro fasteners burst open allowing the pleats to unfold so that the rider's foot can be substantially instantaneously released from the boot thereby reducing the risk of injury. Although this patent indicates a safety feature, it is designed for a rider's boot to break away along the calf of the boot, and does not mention a break away sole or cleats attached to the bottom of the boot.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,887,369 issued Dec. 19, 1989 to Bailey et al discloses a convertible shoe with changeable shoe tops and heels indicating an upper vamp portion with fasteners for removably attaching various shoe tops to various shoe bottoms.
In view of the above, it would be advantageous for an athlete to have available to him or her a shoe with breakaway cleats which substantially reduces injuries. Accordingly, there exist a need for improved cleated athletic shoes and cleats in which the cleats will release in response to a predetermined substantially lateral force which can cause soft tissue injuries or other injuries.